Part ONE • BAKA BINA

PNG Flags

This story is my take on listening to my father talk about self-government with other men in the village and his play on the words sel gavaman/sel kambang and village ribald jokes about getting Telefomin gourds.

I remember throwing my book bilum onto the pitpit bed that was the men’s part of the house and sitting down feeling hungry. I had eaten my kaukau lunch at the morning recess rather than at lunchtime and was low on energy. Beaming with a smile I noticed the pot on an elevated shelf behind the centre posts in the middle of the house. Bless Mum, she was always thinking of us.

I was in Grade 4 and my sister Theresa was in Grade 1. Ma knew that small sis would need her kaukau. However, small sis played a lot and never ate much, but Mum always had more than enough for her, albeit for both of us. She kept a separate place for Tes to keep her share of afternoon kaukau. If it were left to me, I’d take these afternoon titbits and share them amongst the boys we hung around with.

I opened the pot lid and looked inside. There was more than enough boiled kaukau for us. I scooped some out onto a flat tin plate, three pieces for myself, and poured a cupful of the water from the pot into a cup.

I moved to the bed and was eating when Tes breached the door with her small red, black and gold flag. She hung it up onto the wall on the women’s side of the house. The light from the open door did not reach her side of the bed, but she beamed a smile at me for her handiwork at hanging up our new flag.

I smiled back.

I had four copies of these flags tucked into my reading book that I was going to give to Dad later that night. I had done my share of learning the flag song and could master it, although not remembering all the words. Outside I could hear the village was abuzz with children singing the new flag song that we had learned.

‘This is our flag, Flag of our nation …’

Already at Paketo Creek the flag song was being sung over and over in loud voices as children waited their turn to fill their water containers. Tes and I looked at each other. It was my turn to fetch water and hers to collect firewood for Mum to cook the afternoon meal. I hoisted our 20-litre blue plastic container and joined the children at the creek, singing our lungs out with the new song.

I returned huffing and lugging the full container of water in between trying to sing this new song. I had achieved quite a mastery over it even though the notes did not sound exactly as they should.

Mother started a fire outside of the house, and a few adults came by to sit and chat away the evening. They were talking about the new song that the children were singing and wondering what it was all about.

Sel Kambang—it came out as though the song for the flag would bring in our Sel Kambang.

Father was considered a travelled man, and he was trying to explain what he understood about the ‘sel kambang’ that the Somare gavman said we were getting. 

‘Em nau, Somare rausim ol waitman, meri blo Astralia na laikim mipla yet stap long hauslain bilong mipla wantaim nupela trausis—em ya sel kambang.’ 

Na mipela ol mama bai mekim wanem? Wanem kain sel kambang bai mipla ol meri kisim?

‘Ol Telapaumin na ol Sipik save putim ol ‘sel kambang’ olsem ol trausis—paisim bol blong ol. Somare em laikim mipela olgeta mas raun wantaim displa sel kambang pastaim, orait bihain bai em kam na givim mipla ol andapens olsem ol waitmahn/meri save putim ananit long trausis na dress bilong ol.’

I looked up into Dad’s face, wanting to correct him. It was self government not sel kambang. He was serious and meant well. I did not want to feel his wrath so I kept quiet.

‘Self Government or Sel Kambang, they were the same thing, weren’t they?’ I studied my parents’ friends’ faces around the fireplace. Our friends looked up to Dad as being knowledgeable, and his version of sel kambang and andapens had to be correct.

To be continued in the next issue.

Author’s Profile:

Baka Barakove Bina is a senior official of the PNG National Court and a prolific author. Baka is the first Papua New Guinean writer/author to be shortlisted for the literary Commonwealth Short Story competition in 2022.  This story is included in his recent anthology and tenth book, a collection of stories that he submitted to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize competition under the title Resis Long KSSP. He had this self-published in late 2024. You can read about this and other books Baka has written and co-authored by searching the Amazon Australia website.

Many of Baka’s books are drawn from age-old stories and customs of the people of Kotiyufa village, located 12 kilometres west of Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, where Baka originates. Baka wrote, ‘I want to capture a time when I was a child in the village growing up.’ There is an emphasis on using Tok Pisin. Some of the puns used in Tok Pisin lose their meaning when translated into English and are best left in Tok Pisin.